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Ship Routing Utilizing Strong Ocean Currents

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DOI: 10.1017/S0373463313000441

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THE JOURNAL OF NAVIGATION (2013), 66, 825–835. © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2013
doi:10.1017/S0373463313000441

Ship Routing Utilizing Strong

Ocean Currents
Yu-Chia Chang1, Ruo-Shan Tseng1, Guan-Yu Chen1, Peter C Chu2
and Yung-Ting Shen1
1
(Asia-Pacific Ocean Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan 804)
2
(Department of Oceanography, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey,
CA 93943, USA)
(E-mail: rstseng@mail.nsysu.edu.tw)

From the Surface Velocity Program (SVP) drifter current data, a detailed and complete
track of strong ocean currents in the north-western Pacific is provided using the bin average
method. The focus of this study is on the Kuroshio, the strong western boundary current of
the North Pacific flowing northward along the east coast of Taiwan and then turning
eastward off southern Japan. With its average flow speed of about 2 knots, the Kuroshio can
significantly increase the ship’s speed for a “super-slow-steaming” container ship travelling at
speeds of 12 knots between the ports of Southeast Asia and Japan. By properly utilizing
knowledge of strong ocean currents to follow the Kuroshio on the northbound runs and avoid
it on the return trip, considerable fuel can be saved and the transit time can be reduced. In the
future, the detailed Kuroshio saving-energy route could be built into electronic chart systems
for all navigators and shipping routers.

KEY WORDS
1. SVP drifter. 2. Kuroshio. 3. Energy-saving. 4. Route.

Submitted: 14 January 2013. Accepted: 11 June 2013. First published online: 17 July 2013.

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N . Recently, global warming, weather extremes, and

climate change have become hot topics in regard to the impact of actions on the
natural environment and the shortage of energy resources (Barneet et al., 2005;
Behrenfeld et al., 2006; Spence et al., 2011; Coumou and Rahmstorf, 2012; Shakun,
et al., 2012). Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human
activities has been suggested to be a major factor (Matthews and Zickfeld, 2012; Rosa
and Dietz, 2012). Thus saving energy and reducing fossil fuel consumption have
become imperative for the Earth’s environment.
It is generally recognized that approximately 90% of world trade is carried by about
70 000 ships that make up the international shipping industry. Most major shipping
companies have expended great effort to make their ships more efficient. Fuel is the
826 YU-CHIA CHANG AND OTHERS VOL. 66

major operational expenditure for all ships and any savings in fuel can have a big
impact on a shipping company.
Several major methods are available and adopted to reduce the fuel consumption
in the scheduled liner shipping industry. A first measure is to lower voyage speeds
from the maximum of approximately 25 knots to 80% or even 50% of the normal
speed, which is known as “slow-steaming” or “super-slow-steaming”. Speed reduction
not only reduces fuel consumption but also decreases CO2 emissions, according to the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) (2009a). A 10% decrease in speed will
result in a 19% reduction in engine power and a 27% reduction in energy consumption
and thereby CO2 emissions (IMO, 2010). Secondly, wind power is also used to save
fuel through the installation of kites or sails on ships. However, this method is only
valid where the wind direction is favourable, and is better in the North Atlantic and
North Pacific than in the South Pacific (IMO, 2009b). Overall fuel savings are slightly
greater at higher speeds, but, in terms of percentage, the fuel savings are greater at low
speed, due to the low total demand for propulsion power, with about 5% at 15 knots
and 20% at 10 knots (IMO, 2009b). Thirdly, according to IMO (2011), other tech-
nologies are also expected to be used for reducing future ship’s fuel consumption such
as optimised hull, optimisation of propellers, engine efficiency improvement, reducing
on board power demand, and solar power, etc.
In addition to these methods (IMO, 2011), use of favourable ocean currents can
further lower fuel consumption and reduce transit time. The vessels are sometimes
accelerated and sometimes retarded by the dynamic ocean currents during their
voyages. Therefore, it is beneficial to take advantage of ocean currents when they
are along the planned route, and to avoid the currents when they are in opposition.
The North Atlantic is probably the region with the most extensive use of ocean current
information for ship routing, which was demonstrated at least as early as 1769 when
Benjamin Franklin printed a chart of the Gulf Stream to expedite voyages between
Europe and USA. By using fine-resolution current estimates in portions of the Gulf
Stream, Lo and McCord (1995) estimated that relative average fuel savings of 7·5%
could be achieved when riding favourable currents and 4·5% when avoiding
unfavourable currents for vessels with an average speed of 16 knots. Another example
of reducing fuel consumption of merchant ships is the St. Lawrence River in Eastern
Canada. Use of the information of tidal currents from a mathematical model shows
a saving of up to 25% of fuel consumption and a significant savings of transit time
in the lower St. Lawrence River. (http://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/programs/
innovationmaritime_1.pdf).
Similarly, strong ocean currents such as the Kuroshio can also be used to save
operating costs in the North Pacific. The Kuroshio, the principal western boundary
current of the North Pacific, is formed from branching of the North Equatorial
Current off the east coast of the Philippines between 11°N and 14·5°N (Nitani, 1972).
Schematic diagrams of the fragment of the Kuroshio axis were studied in previous
studies (Yamashiro and Kawabe, 1996; Hsueh et al., 1997; Jian et al., 2000; Ambe
et al., 2004; Centurioni et al., 2004; Yuan et al., 2006; Rudnick et al., 2011). The
statistical structures of the surface ocean current speeds were also explored (Chu, 2008;
2009). However, a detailed and complete map of the Kuroshio axis has not yet been
constructed. Can a Kurushio map be constructed from direct velocity measurements
taken over an extended period? Can this information be used for ship routing and
voyage planning, given a high priority in ship operations? How significant is the fuel
NO. 6 SHIP ROUTING UTILIZING STRONG OCEAN CURRENTS 827

Figure 1. Locations of drifters colour-coded in accordance with their 6-hourly instantaneous

speed.

saving after the detailed ocean circulation is constructed? The purpose of this paper is
to determine an energy-saving route for all types of ships using near surface ocean
circulation data. To do so, the SVP drifter data for the north-western Pacific are used
to build a detailed and complete map of the Kuroshio axis in East Asia.

2. D A TA . Direct velocity measurements in the oceanic mixed layer

were obtained with Argos satellite-tracked drifters drogued at a nominal depth of
15 m. The positions of each drifter, interpolated to 6-hour intervals, were used to
construct the velocity vectors and were obtained online from the NOAA/AOML
website, http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/dacdata.html. It was estimated that the
velocity measurements have a nominal accuracy of 0·02 knots for wind speeds less
than 19·4 knots (Niiler et al., 1995). From 1985 to 2009, a total of 1655 drifters were
deployed in, or drifted into the studied region in the north-western Pacific delimited by
15°– 45°N, 100°–150°E, resulting in a total of 900 835 6-hourly velocity observations.

3. R E S U LT. The ensemble of the individual drifter locations were plotted in

Figure 1, colour coded in accordance with the local instantaneous speed. The strongest
current system of the north-western Pacific is the Kuroshio, made apparent by speeds
greater than 2 knots. Formed from a branching of the North Equatorial Current,
the Kuroshio is intensified east of Luzon and Taiwan. This strong ocean current has
a wave-like shape as it moves north-eastward along the south coast of Japan. As
the Kuroshio propagates further downstream, its flow speed and width also grow.
The ensemble mean velocity field, computed from simple averaging (Centurioni and
Niiler, 2003; Centurioni et al., 2004) in 0·5° × 0·5° wide bins and is shown only for
828 YU-CHIA CHANG AND OTHERS VOL. 66

Figure 2. Averaged drifter velocities in 0·5° × 0·5° bins with more than 7 observations. Speeds
higher and lower than 0·8 knots are shown in red and blue, respectively.

bins with more than seven observations (Figure 2). Along the east coast of Luzon
and Taiwan and off Southern Japan, drifter-measured velocities are often greater than
2·4 knots. A detailed and complete map of the Kuroshio axis is shown for a relatively
long time period (25 years, 1985–2009) of direct velocity measurements, useful for
optimal ship routing and voyage planning.
To provide ship routers with more details of the primary path of the Kuroshio at
different locations, enlargements of bin-averaged drifter vectors in 0·25° × 0·25° bins
are plotted in the Luzon Strait, East China Sea, and south of Japan, respectively
(black arrows: >0·8 knots; 0·2 knots < grey arrows T0·8 knots). The detailed and
complete path of the Kuroshio axis will be described in the following section.
Approximately 100 km wide and with speeds of over 1 knot, the Kuroshio flows
northward along the east coast of Luzon. Due to the gap of the Luzon Strait (LS), the
surface Kuroshio often makes intrusions and the dominant path is from northeast of
Luzon to southwest of Taiwan, as was also evidenced from satellite altimeter data
(Yuan et al., 2006). The Kuroshio passes by Babuyan island (121° 57′E, 19° 31′N)
in the LS (Figure 3), turns toward the north northeast at 21·2°N, and goes around
Green Island (121° 29′E, 22° 39′N) off eastern Taiwan. From there the Kuroshio
develops into a strong current moving northward along the east coast of Taiwan.
As the Kuroshio approaches 25·7°N near Taioyutai island (also named Semkaku
Retto island), it starts to change direction to flow eastward (Figure 4). Afterward,
the Kuroshio begins to veer round to the northeast at 125·0°E. At 29·8°N,
due to Yakushima island (130° 31′E, 30° 21′N) and Tanegashima island (131° 00′E,
30° 36′N), the Kuroshio axis presents a “S”-shape. The Kuroshio flows broadly
between 25°N and 30°N along the continental slope of Okinawa trough (Figure 4).
After bypassing Yakushima and Tanegashima islands, the north-eastward flowing
Kuroshio is close to the south coast of Japan (Figure 5). It changes into eastward
NO. 6 SHIP ROUTING UTILIZING STRONG OCEAN CURRENTS 829
26 0

25 -1000

24
-2000
Taiwan

23
-3000
Green island

22
-4000

21
latitude

-5000

20

Babuyan island -6000

19

-7000
2.0 knots
18

0.8 knots
-8000
17
Pilipinas

16 -9000

15 -10000
118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 (m)
longitude

Figure 3. Enlargement of bin-averaged velocity east of Luzon and Taiwan.

32 0
Japan

-1000
31 China

-2000

30

-3000
2.0 knots

29 0.8 knots
-4000
latitude

28 -5000

-6000
27

-7000

26

-8000

25
-9000

Taiwan
24 -10000
120 122 124 126 128 130 132
(m)
longitude

Figure 4. Enlargement of bin-averaged velocity in the East China Sea.

830 YU-CHIA CHANG AND OTHERS VOL. 66
38 0

2.0 knots -1000

Korea
36 0.8 knots
Japan -2000

-3000
34

-4000
latitude

32 -5000

-6000

30
-7000

-8000
28

-9000

26 -10000
128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146 (m)
longitude

Figure 5. Enlargement of bin-averaged velocity in south of Japan.

flowing until reaching the location of 135·5°E, 33°N, then becomes east north-
eastward flowing, and flows around the Miyake island (139° 31′E, 34° 05′N). Finally,
it flows forward with a wave shape at 35·5°N. A detailed and complete picture of the
ocean current and its geographic position with respect to the surrounding islands have
been clearly described, and can be applied to route design and voyage planning.

4. D I S C U S S I O N . Currently there are several shipping routes in East Asia

passing through the Kuroshio region (Shipping & Transport Website, 2013). These
shipping routes and the connecting ports are (1) Taipei to Tokyo (downstream, JTT),
(2) Nagoya to Hong Kong (upstream, NTE), (3) Shekou to Tokyo (downstream,
NTE), (4) Taipei to Osaka (downstream, JTH), (5) Hong Kong to Osaka (down-
stream, NSA), as shown in Figure 6. The relative density of commercial shipping
for various shipping routes in East Asia is shown in Figure 7 (Halpern et al., 2008;
Wikipedia website, 2013). It is clearly illustrated that these shipping routes were
determined based primarily on the shortest distance between destination ports,
without considering the effect of strong ocean currents. To distinguish the strong
ocean currents and identify their locations in East Asia, we have reanalysed the
6-hourly position and velocity drifter data and obtained the spatial distribution of
strong currents. Figure 8 illustrates the average locations and speeds of strong currents
in the north-western Pacific, defined as the bin-averaged speeds over 0·8 knots, over a
period of 25 years. A detailed and complete map of the Kuroshio main stream is
clearly illustrated. The maximum speed of the Kuroshio is approximately 2·4 knots,
which appears off the south coast of Japan. Maps of strong ocean currents such as
Figure 8 can be used for the optimization of shipping routes. For ships taking
northbound routes it would be beneficial to take advantage of the favourable strong
NO. 6 SHIP ROUTING UTILIZING STRONG OCEAN CURRENTS 831

Figure 6. Several current intra-Asia shipping routes: (a) Taiwan-Japan Kanto Service, JTT;
(b) Japan-Thailand Service, NTE; (c) Japan-Taiwan-Hong Kong Service, JTH; (d) North East
Asia-South East Asia Service-A, NSA (Shipping & Transport Website, 2013).

Figure 7. Map of shipping routes illustrates the relative density of commercial shipping in the East
Asia (Halpern et al., 2008; Wikipedia website, 2013).
832 YU-CHIA CHANG AND OTHERS VOL. 66
45

2.2
40

2
Tokyo
Yokohama
35 Nagoya
Osaka
Hakata 1.8
latitude

30 1.6

Taipei 1.4
25
Shekou
1.2
Hong Kong Kaohsiung

20
9 1

15 0.8
100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 (knots)
longitude

Figure 8. Positions and speeds of the strong ocean currents colour-coded in accordance with their
bin-averaged speed in the East Asia.

current of Kuroshio, and avoid it on their return trips. The map of strong ocean
currents could be built into electronic chart systems in the future.
To reveal the importance of a strong ocean current map in the optimization of ship
routing, a route between Taipei and Tokyo is studied. The straight, most-direct route
between these two ports has a distance of 1092·4 nm (red line in Figure 9), and the time
it takes to complete this northbound voyage is 87·9 hours at a “super-slow-steaming”
speed of approximately 12 knots, with some speed gains from the favourable Kuroshio
along the route. Because the return trip of the straight route opposes strong currents, it
will take longer (103·2 hours) to complete the southbound voyage at the same ship
speed. Now taking into consideration the strong ocean currents, a northbound route
(magenta line) that takes advantage of the along-route Kuroshio, and a southbound
route (cyan line) that avoids the opposing Kuroshio, is proposed as a better alterna-
tive. For the northbound voyage, although an extra mileage of 14 nm will be added to
the initial route, the transit time will be reduced by 1·7 hours, or 1·8%, due to the gain
of ship speed from the Kuroshio. On the other hand, the return leg will shave 5·9 hours
off the initial 103·2-hour trip (or a saving of 5·7%) despite the extra mileage of 3 nm
added to the route. This example indicates that the saving of transit time or the
equivalent fuel consumption is more pronounced in avoiding the adverse current on
the return trip than following the Kuroshio on the northbound route.

5. C O N C L U S I O N . Theoretically, following the Kuroshio with a speed of

2 knots can increase significantly the ship’s speed on a northbound route for the ‘slow-
steaming’ container ships at a sailing speed of 20 knots, or even more pronounced for
the ‘super-slow-steaming’ container ships at a sailing speed of 12 knots. Therefore,
following the favourable Kuroshio on a northbound shipping route and avoiding it on
the return trip can save considerable fuel and minimize the transit time for many types
NO. 6 SHIP ROUTING UTILIZING STRONG OCEAN CURRENTS 833

Figure 9. Ship routing laid over bin-averaged strong currents between Taipei and Tokyo. The red
line represents the initial proposed straight route. The recommended magenta line takes advantage
of strong, along-route currents, and cyan line avoids the Kuroshio on the return leg. See text for
details.

of vessels. Knowledge of the Kuroshio dominant path can be beneficial for all ship
routers and captains. Take a 1100 nm-long route between Taipei and Tokyo for
instance, our proposed route, based on the combination of the shortest distance and
the Kuroshio, can save only 1·8% of transit time when riding favourable currents, but
a more significant saving of 5·7% in transit time can be achieved when avoiding
unfavourable currents on the return leg at “super-slow-steaming” speeds.
The effect of wind and waves has long been considered to be a primary factor in
determining optimal ship routes. The effects of dynamic currents have been largely
neglected in early strategic routing studies, because there is no practical way to provide
reliable and timely estimates of a dynamic current pattern. In this study, a detailed and
complete map of strong ocean currents in the East Asia area is provided for ship
routing and voyage planning from analysis based on all historical SVP drifter velocity
data between 1985 and 2009. Although our analysis only produces a mean flow
pattern of Kuroshio without temporal variations, the spatial resolution is sufficiently
fine due to the large number of drifter data analysed. Future work incorporating some
timely current variations derived from numerical modelling into the mean drifter
velocity route will be beneficial to more effective ship routing. In the future, the
energy-saving route could be built into electronic chart systems. Application of these
routes could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fuel consumption and minimize
transit time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Grants from Aim for the Top University Plan from the
Ministry of Education (01C030203) and National Science Council (NSC101-2611-M-110-006)
of Taiwan, Republic of China. The Naval Oceanographic Office supported Peter C. Chu.
834 YU-CHIA CHANG AND OTHERS VOL. 66

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